[vtkusers] Windows installer for 5.0.3

[Andreas Keil]

When I went to http://www.vtk.org/get-software.php I quickly wanted to get
VTK in order to use it in my VC++/Qt/ITK environment. Therefore, I
followed the link to the latest release without reading the first
paragraph after those links. Once you get to the "Latest Release" section,
you are not able to see the difference between the items provided for
download. I assumed that the windows installer is just a pre-built version
of the source files.

I suggest to replace the words "Windows (Installer)" with a more eloborate
version like "Windows Installer for wish.exe replacement" or "Pre-built
Windows TCL platform" or sth. similar. I also suggest to put this download
to the end of the "latest release" box unless you want to promote the
usage of VTK under TCL/TK.

Regards,
Andreas.



-----Original Message-----
From: David Cole [mailto:david.cole at kitware.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2007 16:42
To: Andreas Keil
Cc: vtk; David Goldsmith
Subject: Re: [vtkusers] Windows installer for 5.0.3

Would you be willing to describe what you *did* expect from the "Windows
Installer" given what you read about it on the downloads page...?

What verbiage would you recommend to make it clear that the Windows
installer installs a pre-built VTK executable that allows you to run VTK
TCL scripts? 

Or is it more the case that we should just eliminate the Windows Installer
since there are no libraries / source code in it....?


Thanks,
David Cole
Kitware, Inc.




On 7/25/07, Andreas Keil <andreas.keil at cs.tum.edu> wrote:

	I must admint that I was also mislead by the "Windows Installer"
in the
	download section.
	
	Andreas
	
	
	
	-----Original Message-----
	From: vtkusers-bounces+andreas.keil= cs.tum.edu at vtk.org
<mailto:cs.tum.edu at vtk.org> 
	[mailto:vtkusers-bounces+andreas.keil=cs.tum.edu at vtk.org] On
Behalf Of
	David Goldsmith
	Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2007 15:41 
	To: vtk
	Subject: Re: [vtkusers] Windows installer for 5.0.3
	
	David Cole wrote:
	> That installer merely installs a pre-built "vtk.exe" for Windows
such
	> that you can run VTK Tcl scripts... 
	Then the Windows installer should tell the unsuspecting user that
that
	is all that it is doing (and indicate that if the user wants to
actually
	develop software w/ VTK, one has to download the source and build
it "by 
	hand," as w/ any other platform, the point being it is
*misleading* to
	offer an installer for Windows and no other platform - it gives
the
	impression that for Windows, one need only run the installer, not
go 
	through all the machinations one needs to on other platforms).
Given
	the pace of modern life, it is unrealistic to expect users to read
the
	excessive verbiage that people put on download pages, but it is
	realistic to expect people to read a big flashing "WARNING" sign
put 
	either at the beginning (preferably) or end of an Install wizard.
	> Given the number of compilers/platforms in use these days, it's
	> impractical to ship a useful "make install" tree or binary
libraries 
	> for VTK.
	Yet you offer an Installer for VTK Tcl scripts, but only for
Windows -
	why show Windows preferential treatment here but not elsewhere?
I'm not
	suggesting you ship "make install" trees and/or binaries for all 
	compiler/platform combinations (though your complaint rings
hollow:
	given the amount of time clearly spent just developing the
software, it
	seems like a rather marginal extra investment to develop said
	trees/binaries), merely that you better "dummy-proof" what you do
"ship." 
	> For VTKConfig.cmake, or libraries to link your own programs
against,
	> download or pull the source tree from CVS, as detailed at
	> http://www.vtk.org/get-software.php and then build it with CMake
and
	> your favorite compiler/build system.
	TLTL,
	
	DG
	>
	> HTH,
	> David
	>
	>
	> On 6/27/07, *David Goldsmith* < David.L.Goldsmith at noaa.gov
<mailto:David.L.Goldsmith at noaa.gov> 
	> <mailto:David.L.Goldsmith at noaa.gov>> wrote:
	>
	>     http://www.vtk.org/files/release/5.0/vtk-5.0.3-win32.exe
<http://www.vtk.org/files/release/5.0/vtk-5.0.3-win32.exe> 
	>
	>     appears not to install VTKConfig.cmake (and who knows what
else...)
	>
	>     DG
	>     --
	>     ERD/ORR/NOS/NOAA
	>     < http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/emergencyresponse/>
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